Why is Warm Glass Stickier Than Cold Glass?

Presented by Professor Eric Cornell (2001 Physics Nobel Laureate) JILA, University of Colorado

What we think of as "empty" space is really filled with a fluctuating electric field. These tiny electric fields are spooky-seeming but entirely real. They give rise to the stickiness of a perfectly clean glass surface. I'll talk about a set of experiments we did on this so-called Casimir-Polder force; time permitting I'll explore connections to eschatology as well.